Eryndor gazed at the group chat, and immediately saw Paulina typing.
After a few seconds she sent a reply.
"That's traces of being mind controlled. One done by a newbie mind you.
"That blank space is caused due to the person directly mind controlling the victim.
"Since it was them who was controlling the body of the victim in that period, the memory of that time frame is blank.
"But to not alert the victim, making them realize that there is a gap in their memory, the mind controllers send their own memory of controlling the victim's body immediately into their brain so the victims have a recollection of that event and there is no gap in their memory.
"Professional mind controllers will ensure that the memory they send back will fill up the blank space, not overlap it with the next part."
There was another message from Drakarion just below it.
"Another subtle way to check if the person was mind controlled is to go through the emotions and thought process.
"The period when they were mind controlled will often have a thought process and emotions which deviates from the victim's inherent thought process and emotions regarding the event.
"For example, suppose that the victim is an animal lover, with emotions of pity, sympathy and helplessness arising when they watch an animal cruelty video.
"But if there is a period of time when the associated emotion with animal cruelty is pleasure, and excitement, then you know something is wrong.
"Again, a professional mind controller will ensure all the thought processes, decision making and emotions are exactly like the victim's inherent ones."
Eryndor roughly understood the gist of it.
It seemed he was indeed correct, both Drakarion and Paulina had plenty of knowledge.
Eryndor didn't have any clue if the above knowledge was available in the library.
Therefore he couldn't deduce if they got their information from the library or somewhere else, so he only noted this point mentally.
Just like how he maintained tact about them, the two of his teammates also didn't ask why he needed the information this late at night or how he got his hands on such information.
With those thoughts out of his head, Eryndor's heart turned cold when he realized the current situation.
Rodrick mind controlled Jeremy to use his ability and give us the contact card.
Since Rodrick is the Mayor's younger brother, could it be that he was the one who asked the Mayor to give us false information through the people in his faction?
One thing was clear, Rodrick was deeply involved in whatever was happening and wanted to bring their group of four into the midst.
Eryndor took a deep breath and tried connecting the dots in his head, but there was still plenty of missing information.
He helplessly shook his head.
I need to increase my own strength.
If he had enough strength, no matter how wrong things went, he would be able to handle it.
Before going back to sleep, Eryndor practiced cultivation according to his usual habit.
He controlled a fixed amount of Qi, and circulated them through the route mentioned in the practice technique.
With the amount of Qi gathered in his meridians, it seemed he was on the brink of the minor stage one of the Qi Gathering realm.
Eryndor wasn't elated by the fast progress.
He knew it was quick only because he was in the earlier stages of it and that the concentration of energy in Earth had increased due to the recent increase in Cosmic Limit
Cultivation would only get more difficult as he continued climbing up the stages and realms.
With strict discipline, he laid back down on his bed only after completing a fixed amount of circulations.
Recently he had noticed something interesting.
Cultivation helped him deal with the fatigue in his body which was a result of using his abilities.
Unfortunately it did nothing to the headache.
Would I have to practice the mentalist world's practice technique to deal with the headache?
Due to no data on it, he shelved that thought aside and went to sleep.
*****
The next day was pretty much the same, except more of the team participated in the fights.
It was no longer Drakarion alone fighting the animals.
There was also a piece of good news, Drakarion seemed to have finally sensed his Internal Energy, boosting his prowess to new heights.
To start his Martial Arts journey however, he would still need the resources to refine his physique, stepping into the first realm of Iron Body.
When he laid down on his bed that night, Eryndor eventually decided to perform a Cognitive Scrying on Rodrick.
He was the one who made the first move, so Eryndor no longer had any scruples.
He simply couldn't do it the previous night because he had already extensively used his abilities, resulting in intense fatigue and headache.
Eryndor transitioned into his usual posture and activated his Cognitive Scrying.
With the familiar third person view, he began extending his range towards the inn where the other group was living.
After arriving there, he began scanning the faces of everyone there, searching for Rodrick who should be sleeping amongst them.
Huh?
There was no sign of Rodrick anywhere in the inn.
Where did he go?
Eryndor had no idea where Rodrick had gone.
If he blindly extended his range to cover the entire town, he would once again experience the intense exhaustion and crippling headache similar to that day.
Not to mention he would also no longer be able to further use Cognitive Scrying on Rodrick.
He couldn't imagine the pain if he pressed on with his ability after extending his range to cover the entire town.
After a bit of hesitation, he decided to go through Jeremy's memories.
Although he was a victim to Rodrick's mind control, he knew through his memories that he used his ability to corner newbies when they were alone and extort their credits along with the rest of his friends.
Even though he felt mildly confused why he gave them his contact card with his ability during the mission with professor Melissa nearby, he had still anyway planned to take his group and threaten them if they kept the contact card on them till they returned to the Academy.
Soon, Eryndor knew from his memory that Rodrick had taken permission to spend the night at his older brother's residence.
It's time to go to the Mayor's house.